


Emergency (So Are You Listening?)

by PrinceMeerKat (Author_in_Wonderland)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Galra Keith (Voltron), Insecure Keith (Voltron), Klangst Week 2017, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Season 2 spoilers, blade of marmora, klance, non-binary Pidge, prompt: secrets
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-02
Updated: 2017-04-08
Packaged: 2018-10-13 22:31:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10523256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Author_in_Wonderland/pseuds/PrinceMeerKat
Summary: "How could this have happened? He’d never shown signs of something like this before, when he was back on Earth. So why now? Why now after becoming a Paladin, after fighting and losing and winning, did he start to change like this? It was one thing to know he had Galra blood in him, but it was something completely different to actually look like one. Like a monster."Soon after Team Voltron's victorious battle against Zarkon and Haggar, Keith's body starts to change in a way he never expected. Fearing the reactions of his fellow Paladins, he hides what's happening to him. Yet he gets found out by Lance who, to Keith's surprise, is determined to make Keith understand that he isn't alone in this.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, hello! So this is my first time posting a fic for the Voltron fandom, and I'm pretty nervous. Hopefully you guys will like it. This is for Klangst week (I'm running a bit behind ^^;), the prompt is Secrets/ ~~Betrayal.~~ Also shout out to everyone who helped Beta, you are the best  <3
> 
> Just as a warning this chapter starts with panic attack, so please be wary.

If there was something Keith would admit being bad at, it would be staying calm. He was never good with handling his emotions, so becoming enraged or panicked (or extremely annoyed, when it involved Lance) was common. He was at least a bit better at containing his sadness and happiness. 

So he was honestly impressed with himself for being able to stay so calm, considering the circumstances. Then again, as he stared at himself in the mirror, pale skin slowly being hidden by splotches of purple, teeth becoming sharp in his mouth, and one eye, then the next, becoming an eerily glowing yellow, maybe calm was not the right word for what he was feeling. No, calm definitely was not it. Maybe frozen? Possibly shock. 

It wasn’t until the purple had fully covered his body and his ears had changed that he registered the fact he wasn’t really breathing. He took in a gasping breath and then another, head rushing until he realized that was not actually working because now he was hyperventilating. A panic attack certainly meant that Keith was, in fact, not calm at all. 

Stumbling to his knees, he gripped his own shoulders desperately, barely registering the new feeling of claws and not nails digging in as he tried to ground himself. God, why did breathing have to be so difficult? He could feel his heart beating, blood pounding in his ears, his whole body shaking. He squeezed his eyes shut, hoping it would just pass. 

At some point he must have blacked out, because the next thing he knew he was lying curled up on the cool floor of the bathroom, and someone else was knocking rapidly on the door. 

“Keith!” Lance’s voice rang out, as irritating as usual. “I know you’re in there! Come on man! I’ve been waiting forever! What the hell are you even doing in there? It’s not like you could be spending that much time doing something with that mullet of yours.”

Keith shakily stood up looking towards the locked door. “Shut-” his voice came out raspy before he cleared it. “Shut up, Lance! Why don’t you just go find a different bathroom?” 

Lance made a scoffing noise. “Obviously I want this one because it’s one of the only ones with a bath, duh. Besides, Coran’s going on some weird cleaning spree and already said he’d be leaving this one last, so if you don’t mind, get out of there so I can have a nice relaxing bath before he gets around.” 

Keith could feel his left eye twitching. Lance really knew how to get under his skin. Speaking of, he looked slowly down at his arms, dread in in stomach. When he only saw pale flesh he almost collapsed again from relief. Maybe he had just imagined it? A momentary hallucination of some kind? 

As Keith tried to rationalize it in his head, he took notice of his hands, and his relief evaporated. Blood was on his fingertips, dried under the nail beds. HIs hands began to shake as he snapped his head up to look in the mirror. 

“Oi! Are you just ignoring me mullet-head?!” Lance’s angry shout came from the other side of the door. “I said I wanna take a bath!”

“Go the fuck away Lance!” Keith practically screamed back, his voice barely edging away from hysteria. 

Clearly Lance had not been expecting that, as he went silent. 

“Uh... you know what, I think their might be another bath like on the other side of the castle so… I’m gonna go, there. Yeah. Bye!” 

Keith slumped down to the floor, head between his knees as he heard Lance run off. Even if it had seemed like some kind of nightmare, there was no denying the angry clawed gouges in his shoulders. How could this have happened? He’d never shown signs of something like this before, when he was back on Earth. So why now? Why now after becoming a Paladin, after fighting and losing and winning, did he start to change like this? It was one thing to know he had Galra blood in him, but it was something completely different to actually look like one. Like a monster. 

As he felt warm trails of unwanted tears run down his cheeks, Keith knew one thing. He could not tell the others. 

\-------------------------------------

Keith was acting weird.

Not to say he wasn't weird normally, but he was acting _/extra/_ weird. Lance first noticed something a few days ago, when the whole bathroom thing happened. He wouldn't say it was unusual for Keith to yell at him, but there was something different about it that time. 

At first Lance figured he might've been intruding on Keith’s ‘personal’ time and, not wanting to think too much on that particular subject, dropped it. But then other stuff started happening. Like, Keith avoiding everyone. Not to say he spent all that much time with the others with the whole brooding loner thing he had going on, but now he was only seemed to be around for group training. 

And when he was with them, he was somewhat jumpy. Not very obviously, like yelling or leaping away or anything. It was much subtler. His hands clenching or fingers digging into himself whenever people got too close, or even touched him. His eyes continually shifting around, watching exits like he had to be ready to make a run for it. 

No one else seemed to have really noticed. When Lance tried to ask Shiro about it, he only seemed confused.

“I don’t know. He’s always been someone who keeps to himself,” Shiro shrugged. “I wouldn't worry about it too much. He's just not used to being really close to other people.”

“I-I'm not worried about him! Why would I be worried about that hot headed mullet? I just wanna know why he's being so weird. Maybe he's been doing some kinda new training? I can't have him outdoing me.”

Shiro only smirked, then shook his head. “No, I don't think so. Honestly I haven't seen him around the training deck much.” 

Lance’s eyebrows shot to his forehead. Now that was definitely unusual. Did that mean he was just hiding in his room all the time? 

It was after an incident a week later that Lance decided he was going to confront Keith. 

It had been group training, and they had decided to take a break, most of them flopped on the ground exhausted. 

It was as Lance was catching his breath, looking around at everyone else, that he noticed bruises forming on Keith's arm. They were a purplish colour and quite large. 

“Yo Keith, those those are some pretty nasty bruises. What the heck did you hit?”

Keith raised his head from where he had it laying against his chest, giving Lance a confused look.

“Bruises? What are you-?” he looked down as Lance pointed to his arm. 

Now Lance knew it's no fun to get bruises, but the slightly horrified look that came across Keith’s face seemed a little overdramatic. The sudden mad dash he made for his jacket was as well. 

“Dude, calm down,” Lance gave him a raised brow. “No one cares if that pretty porcelain skin of yours is all banged up.” 

He expected Keith to throw back some sort of witty retort, but instead he just stormed out of the training deck, everyone staring as the doors shut behind him. 

“Uh…”

“What the hell?!” Lance jumped to his feet, gesturing at the door. “What was that?!” 

“Maybe he’s not feeling well?” Hunk offered. 

“He’s been acting weird for days now! How have none of you noticed? This is the icing on the weirdo cake that is Keith this week. Seriously.” 

“Well maybe we weren’t paying nearly as much attention to Keith as you clearly were,” Pidge drawled with a devious smirk. “If you’re so worried maybe you should go check on him. Make sure his ‘pretty porcelain skin’ isn’t bruised anywhere else.” 

Lance felt his face heat up, mouth dropped open as Pidge wiggled their eyebrows at him. 

“I...y-you..that’s not-!” he flailed around before jabbing a finger in Pidge’s direction. “You’re taking that out of context!” he practically screeched, as the others tried to hide their snickering. 

“I’m really not,” Pidge said dryly. 

“You totally are,” Lance crossed his arms with a huff. “Whatever. Since you guys are just gonna be lame, I’ll figure it out on my own. I’ll be back in a few.” He gave a little salute and headed out after Keith. Time to get some answers. 

He took a quick look around the castle, checking the kitchen, common area and observation deck, on the slight chance he didn’t head off to his room. When no sign of him surfaced Lance made a beeline to the sleeping quarters. 

He paused outside of the door, considering his options. He could knock, and probably be yelled at and ignored, or he could barge right in and hopefully Keith wouldn’t kill him for doing so. Decisions, decisions. 

“Sometimes you gotta just take action,” he commented, and pressed his hand to the wall panel to rush in as it opened. “Keith!” 

The room was dark, none of the lights in the room on. If it wasn’t for the lump that was previously curled up on the floor before jumping up at the sudden intrusion, Lance would’ve thought the room was empty. 

“Dude! What are you doing here in the dark? And why are you on the ground?” Lance approached Keith about to poke his shoulder when the other boy flinched away, not even looking up from where he was huddled in on himself. 

“W-what are you doing here Lance?” he mumbled out.

“Uh, obviously checking on you. You’ve been acting super weird and I wanted to know why,” Lance frowned at the other before blinking. His eyes had finally adjusted to the dark and Keith looked kinda… odd. Lance couldn’t quite place a finger on it. Then again, Keith was also playing armadillo, so maybe that was it. 

“C’mon dude, I know you’ve got the whole ‘darkness, no parents’, Batman thing going on, but sitting in the dark by yourself? Waaaaaay too cliche.” He jabbed his fingers at Keith’s sides in an attempt to get him to uncurl.

And it worked. Keith started, not expecting the surprise attack, his neck snapping towards Lance, who promptly jumped back with a yell. 

Bright Galra yellow eyes stared at him in fear. 

“L-Lance…”

“What the fuck?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"Lance wanted to assure Keith that he wouldn't, that the team would accept him always, that he wasn't alone, but he couldn't find the words knowing that Keith probably wouldn't believe them. Not now, anyways. So he just squeezed him a little harder hoping that he would at least understand that Lance wasn't going anywhere." ___

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! So I'm so happy with the positive responses I've gotten! Thank you guys so much! I hope this second chapter holds up to expectations ><

Lance couldn't stop staring. 

He knew he was probably making Keith even more self conscious then he was already, but he was purple for quiznak’s sake! Even his mullet had a purple tinge to it. 

“So, uh… You always been able to do this or...?

“No!” Keith glared at him, which was a heck of lot more intimidating with pupil-less yellow eyes. “It… it's only just started happening, and I don't know why,” he looked away from Lance to the floor instead. “I can't…” his fingers tightened where they were clenching the fabric of his pants. “I can't control it. I have no way of making it stop, or to make myself turn back, and it's occurring more and more and-” 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hey, calm down. You're gonna start hyperventilating if you keep that up,” Lance interrupted him as his words started to come out rushed and panicky, his breath uneven. He approached Keith’s shaking form slowly before sitting next to him, placing a hand on his back to rub soothingly up and down. “Try and breathe with me okay? In... and out,” he said, taking exaggerated breaths, his hand moving up and down. “C’mon, you got this.”

He repeated until Keith followed his instructions, albeit shakily. “Good, just like that. You'll be okay. Just in...and out.” 

As Keith slowly started to get his breathing under control, Lance realized the purple of his skin was starting to fade back to pale ivory. By the time he was able to breath properly again, he was completely back to normal. 

There was nothing but silence for a few minutes before Keith cleared his throat, and Lance moved his hand away. 

“Um, t-thank you for that,” he fidgeted with his fingers. “You, uh are pretty good at it…” 

Lance waved it off. “It's no problem. You don't have to thank me for that. And yeah, with a big family like mine it isn't unusual to have to calm down a sibling or three.” He looked quietly at Keith for a moment before speaking again. 

“So um, like if this happens again and stuff, I'm totally okay with helping you. I-If you want, I mean,” he rubbed the back of his head, starting to ramble. “I'm just y’know putting the offer out there. Cause I can't go having my rival sitting through these things all alone in his room y’know?”

“I...I'll keep that in mind,” Keith stared at him with wide eyes and red cheeks. “Thanks,” he added quietly before averting his gaze again. 

Lance bit his lip. Man, it was weird to have Keith thank his for anything that wasn't mission related. 

“Like I said, no need to thank me,” he playfully shoved shoulders with the other boy. “I'm just awesomely helpful, and totes humble as well,” he grinned when that got a small chuckle out of Keith. 

Eventually it went quiet again, both of them unsure how to address the elephant in the room. Or would it be Weblum in the room? Lance wasn't sure if there was an Altean equivalent for that phrase. 

“So… is this why you've been acting all weird recently? Avoiding everyone and hiding in your room?” 

Keith chewed on his lip, obviously struggling for words before he just nodded.

“And you said that it's happening at random? You have no control of it?”

Another nod. 

Lance hummed and pat him on the back. “That’s pretty stressful. But I'm sure once we tell the others, we can-”

“No!” Keith interrupted him with a shout. “You can't tell anyone else!” 

Lance was taken aback by Keith’s sudden outburst. “What? Dude, why not? If we can talk to the princess or Coran they might be able to do something.”

“No. No one else can know,” Keith gripped at Lance’s arm, his expression becoming panicked.

“I - But it's not a big deal dude. It's not like we don't already know you had some Galra in you! It's just a bit of a random colour change, no one's gonna-”

“Look at me like I'm a monster? Avoid me? Hate me?!” 

Lance was taken aback by the accusations. Did Keith really think the whole team would do that? He opened his mouth to respond but was cut off again. 

“Lance, please!” Keith’s voice was starting to edge on terrified as his breathing started to get erratic. 

Lance quickly back pedaled, not wanting to trigger another panic attack. 

“Okay! Okay I won't say anything, promise.” He placed his own hand over the one that was gripping his arm, holding it in an attempt of comfort. 

After a few ragged breaths Keith just slumped against Lance, the tension in his body uncoiled. Lance hesitated for only a moment before wrapping him in a hug. 

“I'm sorry,” Keith said so quietly it was almost a whisper. “Y-you have to understand though. This. Voltron. All of you… it's the closest thing to a family I've ever had…” His voice hitched then, a vulnerable sound Lance had never heard from Keith before. 

“...I can't lose that.”

Lance wanted to assure Keith that he wouldn't, that the team would accept him always, that he wasn't alone, but he couldn't find the words knowing that Keith probably wouldn't believe them. Not now, anyways. So he just squeezed him a little harder hoping that he would at least understand that Lance wasn't going anywhere. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------

“Hunk, my man. This is delicious!” Lance grinned at his best friend and give him a thumbs up. “This has gotta be one of your best recipes yet!” 

Hunk gave a bashful but proud smile as the other castle residents gave enthusiastic agreement. “Aw, you guys are making me blush. I’m glad this new recipe turned out well though. I’ll definitely make it again.” 

“If you ever want help with new food creations, I’m sure I could be of help!” Coran piped up. “I’m quite the cook, if I do say so myself.”

Hunk blanched, before he started quickly shaking his head and waving his hands in a negative manner. “N-No, no, no! It’s okay Coran! I uh, couldn’t ask you to do that! I mean you already do so much around here…” 

“Nonsense, m’boy! It is part of my job after all!”

Lance zoned out from the conversation, his eyes travelling towards Keith. The other boy was watching Coran and Hunk with an amused look as he ate. He was certainly looking a bit better than before. 

After Keith’s little breakdown earlier, Lance had mentioned that they should probably both shower before dinner was called and two of them had awkwardly parted ways, but not before Lance made Keith promise to call him if he needed to. The red paladin had seemed uncertain but he’d agreed anyway. 

Lance hadn’t realized he’d been staring at Keith the whole time until the red paladin noticed the attention and made eye contact with him. Before Lance could react, Keith gave him him a small, almost shy smile and looked away, back at Hunk’s desperate attempt to keep Coran far away from the kitchen. 

Lance could swear his brain short circuited from the soft upcurve of Keith’s lips in that smile. It had taken him a few moments for his brain to reboot, having to slap his own cheeks and making his already flushed face redder. When he looked around, he noticed the green paladin watching him with an almost evil looking grin.

Oh god. Pidge was never going to stop teasing him now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there is chapter two! Currently I'm working on chapter three (I'd had chapter two already done when I first posted. OTL), and I'm gonna see how much I can manage to write all this weekend so I can be a bit further ahead in my updates. (and also possibly getting one of my many other fics started.) So wish me luck and the ability to break through any writing blocks. OTL Have a good weekend!

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are appreciated! Feel free to catch me on [Tum ](http://dreams-in-wonder-land.tumblr.com/) [ blr](https://princemeerkat.tumblr.com/) or [Twitter](https://twitter.com/PrinceMeerKat) !! As of right now my update schedule is unconfirmed, as I have some other writing that I'm planning to do.


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